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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 9230826" data-attributes="member: 29398">After the fact, I know, but my thinking was that success meant the PC had got to the door and checked it out (and knocked on it!) without being noticed by anyone he didn't want to be noticed by.&nbsp; Truth be told, the idea of a scrying wizard hadn't even occurred to me; but it's not unknown that the party's own wizards will scry on a scout just to make sure things are going OK, and in that case it would have been the wizard's player rolling (mostly for sheer luck of timing) to determine if the scryer happened to notice the Thief's surreptitious knocking on the door.This does, however, also bring up the question of whether success also includes - or should include - things that are completely out of the character's control in the fiction.&nbsp; In this example the Thief can at least use his skills and abilities in order to control who is able to see (or, more importantly, not see) him as he sneaks around but he has no ability whatsoever to control whether or not someone happens to scry him from afar at that moment.Therefore, I'd posit that success on intent only goes so far as what the character can reasonably try to perceive and-or control with regards to that intent.&nbsp; That said, this almost falls under the 'corner case' heading; as something happening that's this uncontrollable by the charcter would probably be fairly rare.Could the GM here just not mention the magical trap at all if the scout got lucky and didn't trip it, such that it's still available to be triggered when the rest of the party comes to catch up with the scout (and to avoid the players having to meta-knowledge their way either around the trap or into it)?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 9230826, member: 29398"] After the fact, I know, but my thinking was that success meant the PC had got to the door and checked it out (and knocked on it!) without being noticed by anyone he didn't want to be noticed by. Truth be told, the idea of a scrying wizard hadn't even occurred to me; but it's not unknown that the party's own wizards will scry on a scout just to make sure things are going OK, and in that case it would have been the wizard's player rolling (mostly for sheer luck of timing) to determine if the scryer happened to notice the Thief's surreptitious knocking on the door. This does, however, also bring up the question of whether success also includes - or should include - things that are completely out of the character's control in the fiction. In this example the Thief can at least use his skills and abilities in order to control who is able to see (or, more importantly, not see) him as he sneaks around but he has no ability whatsoever to control whether or not someone happens to scry him from afar at that moment. Therefore, I'd posit that success on intent only goes so far as what the character can reasonably try to perceive and-or control with regards to that intent. That said, this almost falls under the 'corner case' heading; as something happening that's this uncontrollable by the charcter would probably be fairly rare. Could the GM here just not mention the magical trap at all if the scout got lucky and didn't trip it, such that it's still available to be triggered when the rest of the party comes to catch up with the scout (and to avoid the players having to meta-knowledge their way either around the trap or into it)? [/QUOTE]

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